A drive apparatus including a first motor, a first gear device, a second motor and a second gear device has heretofore been known. For instance, it corresponds to a drive apparatus for hybrid vehicle disclosed in Patent Publication 1. With the apparatus disclosed in Patent Publication 1, a planetary gear unit functioning as a power distributing device is provided as the first gear device through which power, delivered from an engine, is transferred to the first electric motor and the second gear device in split modes. Further, the second gear device includes a planetary gear unit, functioning as a gear reduction mechanism, through which the rotation is reduced in speed and transferred to drive wheels. In addition, the first electric motor mainly functions as an electric power generator, and the second electric motor mainly functions as an electric motor to generate auxiliary power to drive the drive wheels separately from power delivered from the engine.
In the above Patent Publication 1, the drive apparatus includes a case having first to third cases. The first case accommodates therein the first motor and the first gear device, the second case accommodates therein the second motor, and the third case accommodates therein the second gear device. In assembling the drive apparatus with such structure, the first motor and the first gear device are accommodated in the first case to form a first unit, and the second motor is accommodated in the second case to form a second unit, while accommodating the second gear device in the third case prepares a third unit. Then, the first unit and the second unit are assembled to both sides of the second unit, respectively.                [Patent Publication 1] Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 2003-191759        [Patent Publication 2] Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 2003-191761        [Patent Publication 3] Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 2003-336725        
With the second motor and the second gear device formed in the separate units like those disclosed in Patent Publication 1, the number of split components tends to increase with the resultant problem with a deterioration in assembling workability.
The present invention has been made on the background with the above problem in mind and has an object to provide a drive apparatus for vehicle having improved assembling workability.
Meanwhile, another drive apparatus including a motor and a rotating device having a rotating shaft has heretofore been known (see, for instance, Patent Publication 1). In the Patent Publication 1, the planetary gear unit functioning as the gear reduction mechanism is placed adjacent to the motor as the rotating device such that the rotating shaft of the planetary gear unit is supported with a support wall mounted on the case.
With such a drive apparatus including the motor and the rotating device having the rotating shaft, a stator of the motor is fastened to the case via a spacer by bolt clenching. In such a case, if the support wall and the spacer are separately fixed to the case, respective mounting spaces need to be prepared with the resultant probability of causing the drive apparatus to increase in size (especially in a large size in diameter).
It is therefore a second object of the present invention to provide a drive apparatus for vehicle that can prevent the progress of a large size, even in a case where a spacer is placed between a stator of a motor and a case, and a rotating shaft of a rotating device is supported with a support wall mounted on the case.